MLB: Phillies win Round 1 against Braves, 5-4

PHILADELPHIA – The Phillies have a lot of work to do if they want to find a path back into the postseason hunt.

The one thing they have going for them is that they are going to share that road with the team they need to track down an absurd amount of times over the season’s final 76 games.

The Phils and Braves play 16 times in the second half, or more than 20 percent of their remaining schedules entering Friday night had the teams locking horns.

The Phillies need more than a split decision from this 16-round fight. This has to be at least a solid majority decision for them, if not a TKO.

Score Round 1 for the Fightins.

Fueled by a Humberto Quintero two-run home run that survived an Angel Hernandez replay, and an emergency relief effort by the maligned bullpen after Cliff Lee pitched six strong innings, then fell off a cliff, the Phillies edged Atlanta, 5-4, at Citizens Bank Park to start a must-succeed 10-game homestand.

That was how general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. characterized this run that will lead into the All-Star break. If the Phils (42-45) don’t enter that break with some ground gained on the Braves (49-37), he won’t have much choice but to begin the selling of veterans with expiring contracts and/or attractive trade value.

Charlie Manuel believes the Phils understand the importance.

“I think they hear that and realize that,” he said. “Right now I have a good feeling about our team right now. If we keep scoring runs and our pitching holds up, who knows what you can do. You don’t give up. You stay there and grind it out.”

“The only way to definitely gain ground on the team ahead of you,” Cliff Lee said after getting his 10th win of the season, “is to beat them. We’re going to have plenty of opportunities to do that. Tonight was the first time and we got that one.

“We just have to win games, and what the front office does and the decisions they have to make are up to them. It’s their job to do that and it’s our job to win games.”

Lee wanted to grind out a little more for this win, but the southpaw seemed to hit a pretty hard wall in the seventh. With his velocity dipping and his time between pitches getting oddly long, Manuel paid a visit after he gave up a three-run homer to Dan Uggla and a double to Brian McCann, then pulled the veteran when Reed Johnson singled sharply to left.

“I thought he was on course to go deeper in the game,” Manuel said of Lee, “but he got really hot and he was spent … I wanted to give him a breather (during the first mound visit) and kind of see where he was at. He told me he had enough left. He said he wanted to go get him. When he gave up the hit (to Johnson) I went to get him. I felt like he was spent.”

Lee disagreed. Then again, he’d probably protest even if he were being carted off the hill on a gurney.

“It was hot,” Lee said, “but I felt like I could continue to pitch.

“I’m not going to blame anything on the heat or the conditions. We all had to play in the same elements tonight. It definitely was hot and humid, but to me that’s an excuse.”

J.C. Ramirez got Lee out of the seventh with the lead intact, then Antonio Bastardo and Jonathan Papelbon combined for a six-out dominance that the Braves so often get from their stout relievers.

The fact that the Phils provided Lee with plenty of run support helped. In addition to Quintero’s homer, Ryan Howard went deep against Maholm after not starting the Phils’ last three games against left-handed starters.

The win reduced Atlanta’s edge over the Phils to 7˝ games. A sweep would be a huge boost, but with 13 more games against the Braves after this, the Phils certainly have enough opportunities to own their fate.

“It means we have to play like hell. That’s what it tells me,” Manuel said. “We just have to come out here on an even keel and see what happens.

“We still have a lot of games with Washington and the Braves. We have to play really tough against them. It is the quickest way for us to catch up.”